Wednesday, March 26, 2014

I got it on the canvas for posterity. I did. Actually I captured it on a cradled panel instead of canvas. But canvas sounds closer to camera, and "Mandrake versus the snake. I got it on the camera for posterity." are lines from the song "Platform Blues" by the band Pavement, which is where I got the idea for my latest painting. The painting is my submission for Howl Gallery's upcoming bird and snake themed show, called simply, "Bird and Snake Group Show". I used to listen a lot of Pavement when I painted. I still do I guess.

When he wrote the lyrics I'm not sure if Stephen Malkmus was thinking of that old comic character, Mandrake the Magician, or the mandrake or mandragora plant, the root of which often resembles a human figure and has been used in magic rituals for centuries. But anyway, in my painting it is a scrappy little mandrake root, which is battling "the snake", which in this case happens to be a large venomous asp.